Accident and Serious Incident Reporting

The investigation of aircraft accidents and serious incidents is undertaken by the Air Accident Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport, which is independent of the CAA.

All aircraft accidents and serious incidents in the UK or involving a UK registered aircraft should be reported to the AAIB, but may additionally be reported to the CAA through the MOR system described below. The AAIB informs the CAA of accidents and serious incidents reported to it.

The Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) Scheme

The objective of the MOR Scheme is to contribute to the improvement of flight safety by ensuring that relevant information on safety is reported, collected, stored, protected and disseminated. The sole objective of occurrence reporting is the prevention of accidents and incidents and not to attribute blame or liability.

What should be reported?

Any incident which endangers or which, if not corrected, would endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person. Accidents and serious incidents should also be reported to the AAIB as described above.

Voluntary occurrence reports are also accepted under the MOR scheme. i.e. a report not required to be reported by the legislation but which the reporter believes should be brought to the attention of the CAA because of the safety implications.

Confidentiality

Occurrence Reports are treated confidentially to maintain full and free reporting from the aviation community and to protect the identity of the individual in accordance with EU legislation. However, requests for dis-identified data are accepted and data retrievals in response to clear and specific questions are processed in accordance with the appropriate CAA Scheme of Charges.